  |
||||
      |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
(florentine opera, cont.) The Florentine has recently taken steps to back such words with action. “Lectures will put people to sleep, but we have so many different possibilities,” says florentine education Manager, Elizabeth Siefert. Last summer, the Florentine partnered with a hip and popular coffee shop on the city’s lakefront to create a new stage for itself and a new presence with Milwaukee’s career-oriented crowd. Alterra at the Lake, a pump house-turned-coffee shop with century-old brick lining the walls and steel valves lofted in the ceiling, opened in September 2002 on the shore of Lake Michigan. Designed as a place to meet and gather beside the city’s natural wonder, the Alterra café seemed the perfect space for the Florentine to expose its art. The rustic cottage, powered by renewable energy, captures the vitality and casual sophistication of Milwaukee’s latte-drinking, cultured adult population. With dozens of outdoor tables spread about the café’s large terrace, the Florentine found the space, seating and location to breathe the spirit of opera into an untapped audience. Florentine at the Lake, the concert series spawned by this partnership, saw over 1,500 Milwaukeeans enjoying highlights of the Florentine’s program over six appearances this past summer. With well-recognized pieces and previews of the coming season, the series offered opera as “a little more cutting edge, not stuffy, and a little more fun,” according to Siefert. Every other Thursday from June until August, Milwaukeeans were treated to high opera in an open-mic atmosphere (minus beatnik drummers and slam poets, thankfully). Putting an emphasis on familiarity, education and a local feel, the performers from the Florentine chorus were able to connect to the audience in a way that opera is rare today. Evoking a romantic vision of Italy in the summer, Florentine at the Lake combined coffee and culture in a setting embraced by a younger generation more willing to lie on a blanket and pack a picnic than get dressed up and toast champagne. A mere introduction to the experience of opera, the Alterra performances may not translate into immediate box office sales, but the event is an example of how new ideas and different approaches can invigorate the community to break stereotypes and old ways of thinking. The success of the partnership, described as “impossible to measure in traditional terms,” by Alterra co-founder and owner Lincoln Fowler will more likely change the perception of opera in Milwaukee than in runaway ticket sales. A long-term investment plan rather than a get-rich-quick scheme, the Florentine’s outreach program at Alterra is the first step toward creating a new wave of traffic to the box office. The current season at the Florentine features three classic Italian operas and, however recent the relaxed Alterra performances may have been, renewed intimidation for opera newcomers. “It’s great we had this run throughout this summer. 350 people in a night,” says Siefert. “But then fall comes along and people forget about us.” During the regular opera season, from November to May, the Florentine and other American opera companies have all too much in common in terms of audience demographics. However, when a company like the Florentine takes steps to change its traditional perception and dispel intimidation with action, the stuffy air of the Marcus Center begins to feel more like a breeze off the lake. With supertitles – subtitles, but bigger and better – running above the stage and no dress code, the Florentine’s home looks and feels like a giant, acoustically perfect movie theatre, with prices just a tick higher than your typical blockbuster.
|
|
|||
|
|||||
